Rapacious
by Max Rasgar
Summary: A wish can be a powerful thing but wishing doesn't always make it so. [Post Season 5 Fix-It]


Disclaimer: I don't own the characters that appear in this story. SyFy holds all ownership rights. This is a clear case of non for profit. I mean who the fuck is seriously getting paid to write aside from Stephen King and James 'five books a year' Patterson?

A/N: It's been years since I cringed while watching the horrible monkeys slinging shit at the zoo feces extravaganza that was the very short (one blessing at least) Season 5 of WH13. So if you're expecting total accuracy to where canon left off (seriously why would you though) you will be disappointed. I hate the canon and spoiler alert the annihilation of Pyka is first at bat since it was the loaded gun responsible for Myka's character assassination. I started this story exactly three years ago, fiddling with it off and on, while writing other stories. It's time to free it. So enjoy this novella length one-shot which is told completely from Myka's perspective or not?

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**-===|Rapacious|===-**

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**I.**

"Stop it, just...st-stop. Stop!" Myka turns her head away from Pete's insistent tongue, and all around lingering and sloppy kisses while pushing against his chest with both hands. His body is heavy on top of hers and Myka's heart is racing but not from arousal. She's as dry as can be between her legs but at the same time she feels his erection pushing against her inner thigh. "I can't do this. I won't! Move! Now!"

Myka knew sex would be an immediate issue with Pete. It's all he thinks about really with food being a close second. Myka learned that nugget of truth first hand during the body swap ordeal but it's not like it wasn't obvious before they swapped and then shared a body. Myka's always felt that Pete had a porn addiction on top of being an overall slut. The majority of men are sluts save for the rare few that identify as asexual or at least less Neanderthal.

"But, I thought we, you know, love each other." Pete whines and Myka breathes a sigh of relief as he finally moves some and she can't feel his erection anymore. "And I'm dating you, or we're dating, and we've known each other for years? So what's the problem, Mykes?"

Myka suddenly has an inkling of how Helena probably felt when she realized a stranger was out living in her body. The fiction called Emily Lake living in Helena's body doing whatever she pleased. Then again after it was all said and done Helena willingly became the same Emily Fucking Lake and for what? In the spirit of fucked up situations Myka is nearly ready to declare that she's been whammied into this situation without any substantial proof. But obviously that would be taking the easy way out of this mess.

"Problem?" Myka's voice sounds too high even to her own ears. She wants to move her hands off his damp chest but Myka has a feeling that's the only thing keeping him at a safer distance. "Pete, I feel like I've just made out with my older brother and what's worse is he got to second base and was heading into third!"

"So you don't, you know, want me?" Pete is still hovering close enough that Myka can only focus on the hairs on his chest. "I don't make you wet? Because let me tell ya little Pete is as hard as a rock."

Myka's face scrunches up in disgust, "NO! God! Just shut up about your crotch for once!" Myka grunts and puts more effort into pushing on Pete's bare chest until he finally moves all the way off of her. "I just, I can't! I won't do this!"

The tent in his boxers is as noticeable as is his rounded belly. No one can eat as much as he does and get away with it without visible consequences. Myka averts her eyes and immediately closes her legs and rolls away from Pete on the bed. Myka swings her legs off to the side of the bed and starts grabbing for her clothes among the other scattered on the floor. Myka feels Pete's eyes on her and right now the only thing that's keeping her from completely losing her shit is that at least they hadn't gotten completely naked together. But Myka is down to her bra and panties.

The catharsis didn't finally hit Myka until she fully registered Pete's clumsy hands on her tits. Then the dominoes tipped and fell one by one until what would be happening next vividly hit Myka harder than a punch to the face or a rock to the head. She's not going to be able to look him in the eye for a while now without throwing up in her mouth. That's a mean thought that she won't be saying to his face unless he really gets on her nerves between now and when she can put this fiasco firmly in her rearview mirror.

"Then why?" Pete is already whining at that annoying level. Myka really hates that shit. How in the hell did she berate, trick or whammy herself into this situation? It's still looking like a good option to blame a sneaky artifact. "Jesus Myka, please tell me you didn't agree to this just to keep from hurting my feelings?"

Myka is going to plead insanity if it comes to that; if that's what it will take to get the job done. She'll say that the Warehouse finally made her crack. That it took over five years and Pete trying to hump her but it finally happened in the guise of an old stone table and too much stress as a prelude before being thrown into this raging dumpster fire.

"I think I did." Myka reaches down and picks her V-neck shirt up off the floor and then yanks it on over her head and roughly pulls her hair free from underneath it. "That and Steve and Mrs. Frederic and everything happening one after the other and that stupid goddamn table picking through my brain. And there are things I didn't want them to see that aren't any of their damn business!"

Myka snatches her jeans up off the floor which she never should've bought in a size too small because she has to jump into them since they just don't slide on. But then again if it hadn't taken so much time to get her jeans off in the first place Pete probably would've been fucking her before she had her epiphany. Myka shakes her head because she's too mad at herself right now to care about how tight her pants are.

Myka jams one leg in one of the too tight pants legs and then the other, "I suppressed as much as I could until the damn table latched onto the most recent and benign memory of one of our more crackpot snag and bags."

Myka stands up off the bed and pulls her pants up with force. She's covered enough now. She can breathe a little easier now with Pete still eyeballing her. He's quiet for a change and Myka knows why that is, but right now she's not about to placate him or coax him out of his childish reactions to all situations that doesn't go his way. Enough is enough and Pete is forty-four years old and twelve fucking years Myka's senior yet he still acts like a spoiled child.

Myka has to struggle a little to get her pants the rest of the way over her hips. She sucks in a breath and buttons them and then zips up the zipper. Myka can almost hear her heart beating in her ears from the sudden panic but then she hears the rustle of clothes behind her and she's still not ready to turn around and face him. Myka crosses her arms over her chest and bites her bottom lip. Pete better put on a fucking shirt too and little Pete better have gone down on its own steam by now. Either way Myka doesn't want to see or hear about it.

"Mykes, hey, can you just look at me?"

Myka pivots around with a firm glare etched on her face and kind of fixes her gaze over Pete's shoulder. He's wearing yet another one of his endless supply of wrestling T-shirts, "You do realize that I still want to hit you with a chair and I don't mean that in a playful way. Maybe even more now in this moment than when you were going on and on about tentacles when I told you stop. You never listen, you just keep going on and on even when it's not funny!"

Myka bites down on her lower lip again to keep from saying anything more, from apologizing. Going through the motions with Pete isn't something she can do now that sex is his main goal. Myka has zero interest in seeing him naked again. Letting him touch her. Letting him inside of her. Getting off together any time he can get it up because that's all it would ever be.

What shook Myka out of her stupor wasn't Pete trying to shove his tongue further down her throat but the thought of asking him to wear a condom. Details like using protection are sobering as they should be or at least they are for Myka. While Myka might not have had a slew of lovers she does know that once you're in a relationship with a man, even a casual one, they all want to cum inside you. Myka thinks it falls along the same lines as a dog marking its territory.

Then the thought of potentially getting pregnant by Pete is the last thing Myka wants at this stage in her life which was enough to put a kind of fear in her that no artifact has. And that's saying something when you've been close to being killed off in a variety of ways by an array of artifacts. And to top it off a cancer scare is not a free pass that reads: 'to hell with it, life is short.' If anything it's a chance to reassess your life and fix mistakes if you can, if you have the time.

Myka has all her ducks in a row in even tighter formation but one. She has just one unanswered question. One bit of unfinished business that needs to be addressed before she can truly get on with her life. Myka is also long passed sad and heartbroken and straight into really fucking angry about this person, again. But now is not the time to crack open that can worms for what feels like the millionth time.

But for the last five years, if she's going to be brutally honest, Myka has tried her best to put other people before herself and look what's happened? She got involved with a married man and romanticized being the other woman. She even let Sam talk down to her. She then tortured herself over his death until she found Leo and thus closure. She can't keep going on like this. Trying to be everything to everyone is no way to live. Myka's definitely going to forcefully request some personal leave tomorrow since demanding it won't wash.

"Hey, look I'm sorry, Mykes." Pete nods and then reaches up and rubs the back of his neck. "You know Kelly said some things and I bought into it. Hell, I feel like I've been whammied really when you put it like that. And I've known you for...you know I just, this is my fault." Pete walks around the foot of the bed, his bed and moves towards Myka. "Now that I've stopped to think about it things were like you said, too intense and too much, and I took things too far and I made you feel like you owed me this. I'm not so stupid and selfish enough to make you feel bad about it either."

Myka doesn't need or want him close right this second so she drops her stance and moves away. Myka watches Pete frown and squint up his face like he just sucked down something too tart and his taste buds rebelled against the sour assault. But frankly Myka doesn't care about that. This is no time to pad things.

"Myka please, don't act like I'm a leper all of the sudden or like I'm some kind of predator." Pete sighs and then he smiles at her stupidly. Myka wants to slap that look off his face. "I told you before during the great Bronzing of Steve the Boy Scout that it's no big deal if we bone or don't bone."

Myka sees red and reaches out and slaps Pete hard on the face. The sudden smack of flesh on flesh is loud and seems to carry for more than a split second before its noise dissolves into the silence of the room. Pete is stunned and for a second Myka thinks he might cry like the filthy-minded five year-old he acts like ninety-nine point nine percent of the time. Myka never needed to be under the influence of the James Braid chair to feel the blinding urge to hit Pete for annoying her every time he opens his mouth to speak.

"It's a big fucking deal who I sleep with! God, you're such a jackass! What the hell was I thinking? Wait, I wasn't apparently!"

Pete rubs his hand over his reddening cheek, "But you said the kiss was real! You said that you loved me!"

"Yeah, I did because you were giving me your kicked puppy look but then what were the next oh so romantic words out of your mouth?" Myka's fingers and palm are stinging but she still reaches out again to poke Pete in his chest, he flinches. "Let me think, now I know what it was: 'when do we get naked!" Myka narrows her eyes and Pete takes a step back from her still holding his hand to his cheek. "You're such a fucking...tool."

Pete visibly swallows at the low dangerous tone in Myka's voice, "Look, I can see you're upset with me. And you're probably gonna be that way for a while so I'll stop with the jokes and...it's not funny, you're right. And I really am sorry. I still love you though and by that I mean in love with you."

Myka takes a moment to really look at Pete. Is this what she thought that she deserved? A man-child that thinks a hard-on counts as personal growth? A person who makes sexist remarks with every breath he can muster? A middle-aged man-child that has to be the center of attention regardless of the circumstances? A person who actually licked a Farnsworth in the name of not wasting processed cheese?

"You'll get over it." Myka sees Pete flinch again at her words while his hand slips from his cheek. Pete is fine for a best friend and nothing more but thanks to whatever had gotten into them both that's something Myka might not be able to stomach for a while. "I'm not the one for you and you're not the one for me. And maybe in time we can both just go back to loving each other as friends. But nothing else. And don't you dare run and tell everyone what happened, Lattimer."

Myka doesn't say anything else or wait for Pete to she just walks towards Pete's bedroom door and twists the knob with some force and then yanks the door open and leaves. Myka manages to not slam Pete's door but she does slam and then lock her bedroom door once she's safely inside her own private domain. Myka knows there's going to be so many questions tomorrow. Claudia potentially being nosy like she's entitled. Claudia's need to know can get uncomfortable at times. But Myka will deal with that tomorrow since right now she's only in the mood for a shower or two.

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**II.**

Myka has two days to fill before she can go on personal leave which Artie, Mrs. Frederic and the Regents granted right away. And while Myka has never assumed what the mysterious former caretaker could be thinking at any given time Myka still got the impression that Mrs. Frederic knew why this request was coming out of nowhere. Myka supposes the biggest clue though was her requesting personal leave time alone.

In the here and now though Myka plans on filling her time doing lots of inventory in a Pete-free environment. The Warehouse is certainly big enough for the two of them not to run into each other. Myka hopes that this is the one time Pete will get it through his thick skull to leave her alone for a while. Artie also kindly took Myka off active artifact retrieval duty unless a world-ending ping were to happen. Myka thinks she's all paid up on that front since the sweating sickness and everything that came with it.

As expected Claudia came on strong with her enthusiasm over breakfast. Myka had no stomach for it so she said as little as possible but if Claudia and Steve had started high-fiving over some joke at her expense the shit would've hit the fan. Pete had the good sense to just sit far away from her without being too obvious and stuffed his face. Pete eats like his mouth is the only one out there in the whole wide world to feed. It's disgusting frankly and not remotely endearing in any way unless you're suffering from brain damage.

Myka was just angry enough at Pete that had he been trying to break his gluttonous croissant record Myka would've laughed if he'd choked. Myka recalls defending Pete's disgusting croissant triumph to Kelly which is completely stupid on Myka's part. Myka's not going to defend his stupidity anymore though like it's part of her job description. Looking back Myka doesn't know how that habit of making excuses for Pete started or why she felt the need to do it in the first place. The old 'going along to get along' saying is officially bullshit in Myka's opinion.

Myka has thought over her whole history with Pete and the time she fell pregnant by an artifact Pete was thrilled; he totally didn't give a shit that it was her body and not something she wanted. Myka frowns and holds her clipboard with her inventory list to her chest and moves down the aisle. The Warehouse feels peaceful to her today. Myka has never smelled apples but then again she doesn't expect to. Myka has never had that kind of connection with the place of her employment and in the beginning she wondered why but as the years went on she just accepted it.

For a passing moment Myka thinks of Leena and how she wouldn't have been in on the cheering party for Pete to get the girl. Abigail for the most part was quiet at breakfast but this morning Myka could feel her gaze drifting in her direction more than it ever has. Myka might be projecting though. Last night when she was in the shower Myka couldn't decide whether she wanted to cry or punch the tiles until her knuckles bled. A vigorous scrubbing of her body twice over is what she settled on.

Myka shakes her head, she so does not need to be going there again so soon since it's not like she's pulled herself back from the brink and is on steady ground again. Myka turns her attention back to her list and verifies that the next artifact is right where it should be. Myka voluntarily took inventory duty in the older sector where there are yellowed index cards pinned to the shelves under each artifact. Claudia has said it would take her another four years to upgrade the older artifacts into the digital age.

The familiar crackling sound of a static discharge dances its blue blaze down the aisle and Myka quickly crouches down and it passes over her head. The energy surge left behind makes Myka shiver as she stands upright. It's then Myka feels a weight in her free hand and when she looks down she sees a certain banged up old kettle that has a mind of its own. The kettle is as light as she remembers before it granted her that ferret which passed last year. Myka rolls her eyes because of course it would land in her hands on today of all days.

Myka turns around and looks for a place to set her clipboard down without disturbing another artifact. The last time she held the kettle she wished out of pure disbelief of the stupid circumstances her life had become. The absurdity of the information she was being asked to swallow by a man with eyebrows that could possibly be repurposed to dust off high ceiling fans. Myka grins at the very Claudia-like words her thoughts just provided.

Myka's smile fades though as another thought springs to mind and with it all the grief, heartache and pain that Myka suppresses. Myka doesn't wish for the impossible again. Myka keeps her thoughts free of any trappings while she sits the banged up brass kettle down on a bare spot on a nearby shelf. By the time Myka pulls a pair of purple gloves out of her back pocket the kettle is gone.

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**III.**

Myka was in the library at the B & B minding her own business when Pete cornered her the next day. It started out like she knew it would. Pete can never leave well enough alone. Pete goes at things like picking at a scab and then whining about how long the wound is taking to heal while you keep picking at it. Myka took it upon herself to remind him of the time they woke up naked in bed together since he stupidly sort of brought it up the other night. At the end of that ordeal years ago they both said they never wanted the other sexually.

For Myka nothing has changed in that regard and if anything she has an even more solid stance on never having sex with Pete. But then Pete took it upon himself to dig through the arsenal of their history which included a certain someone. A someone who is not here to defend herself and has made it abundantly clear she wants nothing more to do with endless wonder or anyone still working in it. That reminder was painful for Myka even if Pete didn't come right out and say it. But Myka lost the rest of her shit anyway.

"I hated you more than anyone I ever have when you were giving your 'let's kill H.G. for the team' speech by smashing the Janus coin!" Myka's head is starting to hurt from the rise in her blood pressure. Pete gives great pains. "I wanted to strangle you until you couldn't speak. Then I wanted to kiss Helena after I punched her in all her digital martyr complex glory!"

Myka hates that she's not too far from crying. It's been years but those memories of Helena are as raw as ever. Myka knows those shadows Helena cast in her are some of Myka's real defining moments. Good and bad are aplenty since there can't be one without the other. Though Myka could've done with more good to hold onto.

Myka sniffles slightly, "Did you wax poetic too after Claudia and I left before you picked up that rock you hit me with to destroy the Janus coin? You know looking back we should've left the coin in the Regent Vault. I mean think about it, how would Sykes have gotten it out anyway without knowing what things to buy and the damn key! We bungled everything right from the start. We did all the heavy-lifting and Sykes just sent Marcus and Steve in to collect and they did!"

Pete squints his eyes and throws his hands up, "Whoa Mykes! Talk about holding onto anger. I just wanted to clear the air here between us before you ran off again."

The tone of his voice makes Myka cringe. She's nowhere near ready to put up with his shit like the last two weeks of their dating and breakup never happened. If Pete were a woman, he would be the slutty and emotionally clingy kind. He's already the male version so it's not a stretch of the imagination.

"I have to take some time off, Pete. And I don't need your permission to do that or you trying to make me feel guilty about it!"

Pete makes a face, "Fine, whatever! I get it now but this time you're running from me?"

Myka thinks if there's one person in this world who likes to make everything about them it's Pete, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You love her, don't you? You just said you wanted to kiss her." Pete dares to take another step closer. "You've always loved H.G. haven't you?"

Myka leans back slightly from Pete's encroaching presence and crosses her arms over her chest, "That's none of your business but, yes."

There's a measure of relief that loosens in Myka's chest at saying it out loud even if it is Pete who got to hear it first.

Pete nods his head and places his hands on his hips, "And you left the Warehouse the first because H.G. stomped all over your heart at the same time as she was waving that world-ending pitchfork around too."

Myka bites down on her lip to keep the sudden angry tears at bay. Pete isn't one for details but maybe she should've told him some of those details instead of letting him berate Helena when she was ripped from her body.

"Yes."

For the bit of relief, the truth also has a bitterness to it for Myka. The time she spent with one of her favorite writers was too brief and there never was a right time for them. Myka was never so naive as to think it was merely a crush that she harbored for Helena. Those feelings Myka has held in quickly grew little by little and despite Helena's flaws she will always be amazing to behold in Myka's eyes. Myka realized some time ago that any other person in this world will just be a person Myka will be settling for.

"Why then, Mykes? If your heart is set on her why me?" Pete moves forward again and Myka can tell he's itching to put his hands on her. "I know now that I didn't make it seem like you had options but you still could've said 'no'."

"I told you why already." Myka uncrosses her arms and steps away from Pete. "Don't make me say it again. I don't want to hurt you."

"Okay, so Mrs. F and Jinksy put ideas into your head and the table did its thing and then I made it harder." Pete shrugs and though he's smiling it's decidedly not anything caused by blinding happiness. "I let people put ideas into my head too but I figured since I already loved you maybe I wasn't seeing the big picture."

Myka knows the picture Pete has painted out for her if they'd stayed the course but Myka's not renting out her body and soul to please someone else. Pretending to want what they want to keep the peace is what you get when you settle for someone who isn't the right fit for you.

"There is no big picture for us, Pete. I had cancer and now I don't. The Warehouse was moving and it still might. Regardless of all that my life was turning into a bad soap opera worse than that telenovela we were sucked into. And I let myself believe that I was helpless to do anything but watch until I couldn't just be a bystander anymore."

Pete's face wrinkles up and the crow's feet around his eyes deepen more, "So I'm not allowed to fight for you, fight for us?"

Myka feels like pulling her hair out, "There is no us, Pete! I don't want you like that! And I never will!"

Myka closes her eyes and moves to rush out of the library. This is ugly and Myka has the sinking feeling it's going to get worse unless Pete lets it go which she knows he won't. Myka feels Pete's large hand grab her by the elbow and for a second her training nearly kicks in and she considers throwing him off her.

"Wait Mykes, I'm sorry. Okay?" Pete faintly tugs on her arm until she turns around before he removes his hand. Pete sighs deeply and Myka gazes into his brown eyes that hold none of the draw that another deeper shade in another person does. "I'm not gonna lie, what you said stung, just like the things you said the other night but I understand to a point."

Myka reaches up and wipes away a tear before it escapes, "See, this is why I need to go away for a while."

Pete frowns, "Yeah, I know."

Myka knows Pete will find someone else better suited for him when he stops fixating on her so much. Myka shifts her weight from side to side and the wooden floorboards creak under her feet at the action. Pete looks like he's got more to say that or he's realizing it's time to eat again or worse.

Pete grins, "So inquiring mind here and all, level with me Mykes, did you touch her boobies?"

If by reflex or muscle memory at this point Myka quickly reaches out and punches him on the arm, hard. It's a familiar state for Myka; being annoyed with Pete and for a moment she thinks that maybe they'll be alright. But not right away. Pete will however make an effort to be an ass unless his mouth where to be glued shut with that artifact glue that Myka saw down on one of the shelves in the Warehouse; it activates when you try to speak. Pete would still be free to do everything else with his mouth though.

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**IV.**

As Myka pulls out of the driveway from the B&B she thinks about using some of her personal time to go find Helena again. It might be a challenge if Helena's not going by the name Emily Lake anymore. To be honest Myka hates that name and every place 'Emily' lived, worked and every person she fucked with that name while using Helena's body. Myka feels a little disgusted with herself now that she's had time to reflect on what The Regents really did to Helena. It was cruel and unusual punishment and not at all helpful to Helena.

Everything after though is all Helena's free will. Giselle can kiss Myka's ass too like Nate. Myka wouldn't lift a single finger in an effort to try and steal H.G. away from Giselle either. Myka has no great expectations left if she had any at all. It would be about closure. About setting the world to rights again; specifically, Myka's little world dedicated to H.G. Wells locked away in that one corner of her mind and battered heart. Myka tried exorcising those demons before by writing but it wasn't enough.

Maybe one of these days it'll be time to settle accounts. Time to say all those words that Myka forced herself to choke on while being noble in Wisconsin. Being noble sucks frankly when you're the one eating out of the bag of shit you've been handed. Myka frowns at her thoughts and stops at the end of the driveway to check to see if they're other cars coming before pulling out onto the road. There aren't any cars on the horizon in either direction. There never are.

Myka is mostly resolved to let sleeping dogs continue to lie as she turns right and heads towards the airport in Featherhead. She's not even going to lick her wounds while hiding out in her parent's bookstore this time. Myka has a nephew she's never seen and that'll be one of her stops on the way back here. For now, though Myka just wants to be anyplace but here or anyplace she's never been before. The world is smaller now for Myka since she's been everywhere snagging and bagging.

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**V.**

When Myka comes back to the Warehouse the kettle finds her again. Myka was in the process of doing inventory near the H.G. Wells section of all places. It's been a little over a month since the last time it found its way into her hand. Pete is out on a ping with Steve and Claudia is off doing one of her many future caretaker duties. Just because Claudia wants to be an agent in the field a while longer doesn't mean she doesn't have obligations to meet.

Myka decided on her trip to leave Helena alone and find closure another way. The more Myka thought about it during her downtime she decided that she couldn't stomach another repeat performance of Boone. The only thing that would be different would be the location along with yet another person that Helena claimed she felt connected to like no other. All Myka has to do if she wanted to torture herself is just imagine she's back in that kitchen with Helena in Wisconsin.

If Myka weren't so heartsick about her life in general she'd wish that Helena would sleep her way around until she caught something that even bronzing can't get rid of. But that kind of thinking is for bitter people though and Myka is definitely trying to rise above. Not to mention Myka has taken the time to ruminate over all the times she spent with Helena. It wasn't much really. And Helena aside from her inherent flirty nature never once alluded to wanting Myka in a romantic way.

Myka has grudgingly accepted all over again the fact that Helena has only ever used her really. The very last time Myka saw Helena it was no different. Once the jawbone was snagged, bagged and tagged Helena wanted Myka gone. But at the same time despite those barbs there is a little corner in Myka's traitorous heart still dedicated to Helena Wells replays those moments from the beginning.

The first words they spoke to one another and how looking back 'sorry' really sums it all up nicely. Then there was the first time Helena touched her. Myka was putting the handcuffs on her and before Myka could get the second cuff tightened Helena was rubbing the backs of her fingers over Myka's hand. No woman had ever made a pass at Myka before, not too many men either to be accurate.

Myka gets it now though. Helena hadn't touched anyone in a long time and it was an excuse. Myka doesn't think that Helena had made any concrete designs on using her until she showed up at Tamalpais. Clearly, Helena's original target was Pete but then she changed her mind as she so often does. Myka frowns and adjusts her grip on the kettle's handle. She hasn't made a wish no matter how her thoughts have run with so many ideas.

Myka knows if she does make a wish she'll just get another ferret but when the next cute vermin pops out of the kettle Myka's going to name it Shelly or Kafka. Myka remembers walking past the beaten up helicopter that was 'Training Flight 22' which was just a small glance that was a small part of the tour Artie took her and Pete on that first day. Myka laughs a little at her reaction to the Warehouse back then. The perceived dead end job but later on it became the place she loved most. That's changed again though. Myka wonders if her feelings towards the Warehouse can even be a fraction of what they once were.

Myka has spent the last couple of days thinking about Helena and why out of all the people in the world Myka had to fall hard for her. It's not fair. Myka wasn't looking for that to happen but it did. Myka's buried and longstanding feelings didn't really kick in as so much kick her in the gut until Wisconsin. Myka realized she'd been blindsided by Helena again. It's all too tempting and again Myka has no expectations beyond the present so Myka grips the kettle tighter and she makes a wish. Helena is the inspiration as Myka wishes to re-live a precise, difficult and pivotal moment in the past. What would be the last time she saw Helena before she disappeared and didn't resurface in the great cheese state of all places.

Myka blinks, her hands are empty and then just as suddenly she's rushing after Artie with Helena and Pete close behind her. Sykes is dead but he didn't die under Gandhi's doti. They're dealing with that damn brick bomb again only this time it's different. Myka knows there's no diffusing the thing. Artie is frantic. Pete goes for a blowtorch and Myka watches after Helena who calmly goes towards the electrical control box in the Ovoid Quarantine. Myka blinks and she realizes that this is what happened before Artie fixed the timeline with the Astrolabe.

Myka takes a shuddering breath. Obviously some of them are going to survive. Artie at least does. Helena is going to die though but at least they're going to die together. Myka feels her eyes start to burn at the thought of what is seconds away. No wonder Helena was different, no wonder she left. This Helena she's looking at now is going to be vaporized. Myka blocks out Artie's and Pete's blabbering and moves to where Helena is at the control box. Myka feels like grabbing her and never letting go until Helena asks her to.

"Helena, what are you doing?"

"Oh, a spot of tinkering since we're in quite a bind, darling." Helena grins and yanks out a large wire and then another and starts to pull back the insulation on the copper wiring. "I brushed up on the Warehouse again quite closely while I was furthering the plot as it were."

Myka closes her eyes and thinks here we go again. Myka remembers how she told Helena to get down off her cross but it would appear Helena's hopping right back on it. Myka watches Helena lift the lower yellow flap on the control box and run her hand along the outlets, fuses and switches. Helena sighs deeply, removes her purple glasses and lays them on the floor.

Myka clears her throat and yanks off her protective glasses to quickly wipe away a tear before it runs down her cheek, "What are you doing? Just tell me! Please?"

"I think...no." Helena grunts and then pulls out another long black wire from the side of the control box. "I know that I can access the barrier remotely from here."

"The Remati Shackle barrier, okay." Myka runs a hand through her hair. "Why? Do you know how to open it, reverse it maybe?"

"I thought perhaps." Helena shakes her head and starts stripping back more insulation on the other wire. "Just give me a moment to concentrate, darling."

Myka goes to speak but then Pete growls out a 'let me at that thing' and Myka hears a blowtorch light up at the same time but she doesn't dare take her eyes off Helena. Are they going to die together? This wasn't what Myka wished for, not that she knew exactly. Myka silently vows that if she gets a next time, provided this isn't a hundred percent real, then she'll chose her wording more carefully around that damn kettle. Because if this is real then she's in the timeline that she apparently dies in along with Helena. Myka wipes away another tear before it slips past her eyelashes.

Myka pulls off her gloves and along with her protective glasses she throws them down on the floor. The clatter makes Helena look up from her work, "Helena we're going to die."

"No, you're not if I can prevent it. And I will." Helena stands up with two coils of wire draped over both of her elbows and two exposed ends poised to touch like she's about to hotwire the Warehouse. "I need you to go stand over there with Artie and Pete."

"No!"

"Please darling, time is in short supply." Helena's dark eyes are glossy. "This is the only way I can save you."

"No, I won't do it." Myka is shaking all over from fear and why did she wish for this? This is way worse than the reality she just took leave from. But then Myka recalls the Janus Coin which is fresh for this Helena but not Myka. The old hurts are potent. "I won't watch you die this way either."

"Then what would you have me do?" Helena hisses out the words lowly as a tear slides down her smooth cheek. "There is only one spot on the floor over there that I can manage the bypass. To reroute a portion of the barrier."

A kind of peace chases all the fear out of Myka so quickly she takes a deep breath to let it all go. They don't have to die like this. Why didn't they think of this before?

Myka smiles then and reaches out to gently wipe the tear off Helena's face, "Then do it."

Helena's eyes flutter shut at Myka's touch and Myka wants to kiss her for happier reasons than 'I'm going to die and I wanted to do that at least once.' Helena's dark eyes brighten with that twinkle of her's because she gets it too and she smirks confidently at Myka before turning her attention to the device on the table.

"Pete, Artie!" Helena shouts in her nearly perfect diction and the two men look up from their collective grumblings. "Place the bomb on the floor directly where you are standing please and then step away."

Artie and Pete for once don't bother to talk over each other or ask why because the answer is obvious. Myka watches Pete pick up the bomb and then set on the floor before he moves to stand beside her. Myka has to remind herself that this is Pete from over three years ago. This was back when he hopefully wasn't harboring some seriously misguided feelings for her but it's a given that he would still like to see her naked since she's a living-breathing woman.

Artie moves to stand near Helena as a small smile lights up her face while she begins to bring the exposed ends of the wires closer together, "And here we go."

At Helena's words a thin stream of lightning shoots out as the ends of the wires make contact. The electric blue blast trickles and bleeds down until the bomb is completely encased in a swirling energy bubble. Artie moves forward and touches the barrier. He jerks his hand back and a rare smile changes his features. Helena laughs lightly and it takes a little effort but then Helena pulls the wires apart and lets them fall to the floor. Helena removes her purple gloves one by one and they stand there as the seconds count down and then the bomb explodes.

"I smell apples." Helena utters lowly and Myka reaches out and takes one of Helena's hands in hers.

Helena is trembling and Myka lightly squeezes her hand. Myka doesn't smell the apples instead she hears Pete make a comment about the bomb making the barrier look like a giant lava lamp. Myka isn't watching the contained blast though. Myka closes her eyes and internally thanks the kettle for granting the vision to see that there was another way besides her and Helena being destroyed along with the Warehouse.

* * *

**VI.**

Myka feels like she's in a daze as she stands in the living room of the B&B and listens to Artie recount the ways Sykes bomb could've destroyed more than just the Warehouse. Mrs. Frederic is silent as she takes in Artie's ramblings and to Myka's delight he doesn't hesitate to tell the Caretaker how H.G. Wells was going to sacrifice herself yet again to save the Warehouse. Artie has suddenly become a vocal assenter to Helena's true self and now Myka knows exactly what changed his mind. It took something severe to sway him in the restored timeline Myka lives in when she's not wishing her life away.

Myka quietly excuses herself from Pete's gaze and the discussion that involves a lot of talking over each other save for the fact no one dares to do that to Mrs. Frederic. Myka moves towards the stairs and the last thing Myka hears before slowly climbing up the staircase is Claudia loudly and adamantly stating that Steve's death should be undone. There's a shouting match about a metronome as Myka hits the first landing on the staircase and the wood creaks under her weight. Myka hesitates for a few seconds but then moves along.

Myka knows that Claudia will get her way on that front. Claudia has everything restored to her in time. First there was her brother Joshua, then her second brother Steve and finally her older sister Claire. Myka isn't bitter though. Claudia doesn't deserve anything anymore than anyone else. Some people can just ride out their bad luck until it's done with them. Claudia paid her penitence when she was homeless and then some more when she was in a mental institution. Her bad luck was mostly through with her by then.

Myka shakes her head and then pushes her hand through her hair. It's straight again and it feels strange under her touch. Myka sighs heavily and walks down the short hallway towards her room. Myka hopes that this wish will be done with her soon. Maybe the trick to it is going to sleep here and then waking up in the real world? Or maybe this is real life now but Myka seriously doubts it. Myka places her hand on the cool knob of her door and twists the knob. The door swings open on silent hinges and comes to a rest.

Myka steps inside her room; pulling her jacket off and as she's tugging her arm out of one sleeve she notices the bullet hole. Myka laughs sadly and pulls her arm out of the other sleeve. Myka looks over the jacket and then puts a finger through the bullet hole. Myka remembers the small bruise that formed on her bicep where the bullet grazed her. As Myka goes to toss the ruined jacket on a chair she feels something heavy in one of the jacket's shallow pockets. Myka turns the jacket over in her hands and goes to check the pockets.

"Myka darling, are you alright?"

Myka startles at the intrusion she should've seen coming by a mile and the smooth accented voice that is indescribably beautiful. Everything about Helena is beautiful even her broken heart and tortured soul if Myka were inclined to be even marginally poetic.

Myka's fingers tangle around a chain in the jacket pocket and a shuddering breath slips past Myka's lips, "No, I'm not. I don't think I've ever been alright in a long time."

Myka closes her eyes as her hand closes around Helena's locket hidden in her jacket pocket. Myka never got a chance to give it back to Helena the first time. They never had time before or made time maybe but that's apparently being remedied. Myka doesn't know if she can be happy about that development considering that's not the accepted norm between her and Helena. Myka listens to Helena close the door, lock it and then Myka hears Helena move towards her.

Myka's heart seemingly starts beating faster all on its own. Myka briefly wonders if she is nothing but a closeted masochist deep in denial about it since she wished for this. Myka has known for years that Helena was or rather is her 'one' and not just in matters related to the Warehouse. Myka has forcefully learned though that just because you think that person is your one doesn't mean that they are. Life is cruel that way. Myka takes a deep breath at the feeling of Helena pushing her hair back and off over her shoulder.

Myka's eyelids flutter closed tighter at the sensation of Helena touching her again and not in some pathetic send-off way. Myka didn't pay much attention to Helena's touches when they first started happening. Myka's thoughts helpfully remind her once again about the first time Helena touched her was when Myka was cuffing Helena to the chair in Helena's office just before Helena tricked her into finding that damned vest. Myka never wants to be stuck to a ceiling again for the rest of her life. The next thing Myka becomes distinctly aware of is Helena moving closely around her.

"Your eyes have the most wondrous golden ring around the pupils." Myka clenches the locket in her grasp as tightly as she keeps her eyes closed against the lulling yet seductive quality of Helena's rich voice. "Glorious true green eyes along with a darker hue of green along the edges of the iris. Won't you show them to me?"

Myka's eyes automatically open but she sniffles as she complies, "You know that's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me? Well, prior to what happened back when I first started working for the Warehouse."

Helena smiles gently, "Tell me about it? I will listen with only a modicum of concealed jealousy."

Myka ignores the flirt and recalls the memory as vividly in her mind as if it'd only happened yesterday, "It was my second case. These bank robbers were using music that was partly capable of hypnotizing people in the right environment."

Myka quietly moves out of Helena's orbit and goes to sit down on the side of her neatly made bed with her bullet hole-marked jacket resting in her lap, "Pete and I found the musician who wrote the music thinking he was one of the suspects. But he was sick and dying. During the interview he told me I had a beautiful voice. And when he said it I could only hear one of my father's less than kind observations about my voice playing in my head. I told the man what my father said and his reply was: 'He doesn't hear you'."

The cool metal of Helena's locket is warming in Myka's hidden palm and it's a comfort which makes Myka flash Helena a small smile, "I don't believe anyone has heard me my entire life. I've always had to speak up if I wanted to be heard but sometimes even that wasn't enough. I remember being trapped in Lewis Carrol's mirror protesting my existence when Artie was stubbornly saying I wasn't real, that I was just a shadow. That's the best metaphor for my life; being stuck in that cone of silence. Claudia was my only ally."

Myka watches Helena move to sit beside her on the bed, "I am in total agreement with the gentleman's opinion in regards to your lovely voice. He apparently was a soul not without poetry."

Myka is firmly embedded and obviously committed in this reset but it's not a true reset. Myka knows this isn't real, it can't ever be. Myka supposes she should just throw all her cards on the table in the least selfish manner to see what happens. Myka didn't make this wish to have some kind of quick tumble between the sheets with Helena. That really would cement Myka as a masochist. Myka knows if she were to indulge that very real desire that when she goes back to reality it would just make living and moving on that much harder. Myka can do without more futile rowing against the current.

Myka licks her lips and loosens her grasp on the locket in her hand, "You, you said you smelled apples."

"I did?" Helena smiles warmly and folds in her hands in her lap. "I don't recollect saying it this day in all the excitement but I smelled the apples at Warehouse 12."

"Do you know what that means?"

Helena shrugs, "Caturanga told me that it meant the Warehouse liked me." Helena's smile changes and Myka imagines that she's remembering that moment from her past. "While I questioned the validity of a building developing personal affinities."

Myka takes a deep breath and decides this is a good start, "Claudia can smell the apples and so does Mrs. Frederic."

"Myka, what's wrong?" Helena sighs and reaches up and puts a hand through her shining black hair. "I'm more than aware we just escaped a highly traumatic event but we are still intact."

For a few seconds Myka entertains the thought of leaning in and finally kissing Helena. God, does she want to. Myka is more than aware what charged situations do to a person. Myka thinks that's what kickstarted her infatuation with Helena; having Helena save her from that black SUV intent on running them over. Myka could've possibly rolled to the side and maybe missed the vehicle but Helena just had to be the dashing hero so to speak.

Myka sighs heavily to tamp down on the emotional cocktail Helena stirs up in her every time they're together, "I'm guessing, but I think the reason you can smell the apples is because you were supposed to become Caretaker at some point back in your time. You were, no you are incredible Helena. You'd probably be standing in Mrs. Frederic's shoes right now if you hadn't been bronzed."

"You're quite the flatterer, darling, but what makes you say that?" Helena turns slightly on the bed until Myka feels Helena's thigh lightly resting against hers. "If that were true it's safe to assume that time has passed for me if in fact that was to be my destiny. Claudia will be the new Caretaker when her time comes of that I have no doubt."

Myka kind of wants to tell this Helena all about the mad alchemist Paracelcus and his escape from the bronze sector but she can't. That whole insane alternate timeline Myka saw after Paracelsus made himself immortal. Caretaker forever.

"Do you remember Rebecca St. Claire?"

"Yes, of course." Helena's forehead scrunches up. "Why?"

Myka isn't trying to lead Helena in circles but she is drawing this out because who is to say how much time Myka has to do this? Myka is working up the nerve to pull no punches with Helena even if it takes bold baby steps to get there.

"Rebecca told me once to get out of the Warehouse while I still could. She said that it would use me up until there was nothing left." Myka glances away from Helena's soulful gaze at stare at the jacket in her lap and the locket that it's masking from plain sight. "I hadn't thought about that day in the dead agent's vault with her in a long time. That was over five years ago now. Before you and I met."

Helena shifts on the bed again and from the corner of her eye Myka sees Helena about to reach out to her before Myka feels her heated touch on her upper arm, "I know today has been overly stressful darling but you really must tell me what's wrong now. Where is all this really stemming from?"

Myka is going to cry at some point because this wish has brought out so many repressed feelings with new points of views brought sharply into focus. Suddenly, Myka doesn't begrudge Helena so much for leaving but she will never get over Helena choosing that mediocre house-husband with his early man features and his creepy kid over her. It was like an about face to Myka in that moment in Boone; how she felt about Helena's ready-made nuclear family. The next realization hits Myka like an epiphany delivered via a sledgehammer to the solar plexus.

This made up universe can be the closure Myka needs without having to swallow more of the real Helena's hollow platitudes and the further blows of rejection. Myka didn't go into this wish harboring any illusions of falling into bed with Helena so they could fuck each other's brains out. That's not realistic and Myka isn't trying to become a sadist. Myka has been tortured by her what-if's and fantasies fueled by Helena enough in her other life to know better than to do it here too.

"There's a town in Oregon called Eureka that you should visit." Myka looks up from her lap to meet Helena's deep but warm dark brown eyes. "It's no harder to find than the Warehouse but it is camouflaged by an electromagnetic shield."

Helena smirks wryly, "And why is that significant? Not that I don't find the information mildly intriguing, darling."

That accent is luminous and the way Helena pronounces her words alone is a pleasing experience. Myka could listen to Helena read a thesaurus but this is an opportunity and Myka isn't about to waste it on more tears or blind foolish hope. She's shed enough tears in Helena's name for too many years in her other life too. Not to mention Myka tried letting Helena go in the hope that she would come back but she never did and she never will.

Myka lowly clears her throat, "The town is operated by a corporation called Global Dynamics and they have a device that can open up wormholes in space and time." Myka forces herself to not look away from those impossibly dark and alluring eyes that are but one weapon in Helena's arsenal. Myka draws Helena's locket out of her jacket pocket and extends it to Helena. "You could use it to save Christina and bring her back here, the future, and that way there would be no paradoxes."

Helena gapes for a moment but takes the locket and for second Myka imagines Helena slapping her across the face or worse. Myka doesn't see any point in holding anything back in this time since there's nothing to lose anymore and any imaginary gains are just that, imaginary. Myka just wants to see where this could go since it's not real. Helena clutches the locket to her chest and Myka watches tears flood and then overrun Helena's eyes. It takes a long minute but Helena moves off the bed and then silently leaves Myka's bedroom.

Myka isn't surprised to realize the next morning that H.G. is gone. Myka had a gut feeling, not a vibe, that Helena would just slip away; leaving in a way that no one would notice until she didn't show up for breakfast. Myka's not hurt in the slightest though since she knows exactly where she stands with H.G. and where she more than likely went. Myka plays dumb when anyone asks where H.G. could've gone. Myka knows that no one will find H.G. unless they up and decide to go visit Eureka.

From there on out the timeline continues on in pretty much the same way as Myka can honestly recall. Claudia brings back Steve but without the whole Astrolabe and the Brotherhood of the Black Diamond drama. Leena lives too since no Evil Artie appears because of the Astrolabe and to release the sweating sickness. Abigail never shows up either and Boone fucking Wisconsin never happens. Myka is at least happy to know that H.G. never attaches herself to Nate the Neanderthal because of a girl named Adelaide.

But Myka never hears from H.G. which is exactly what she expected but Myka doesn't know if what happened in Eureka was successful or not in this suspend disbelief manufactured world. Myka sincerely hopes that Helena got what she wanted this time. The suggestion just popped into Myka's thoughts and there was no reason to hold it back. It was freeing really. Now Myka is mostly just waiting to wake up from this wish. She finally has her closure without making a bigger fool of herself than she did in Wisconsin back in the real world.

* * *

**VII.**

Myka wakes up in her bed and for a second she thinks it was all a dream until she realizes that she's lying on top of the covers and she's still in her clothes that she put on that morning. Myka gingerly raises her head off the pillow and groans because her head protests loudly. Myka's entire skull feels like it's been split open and then every time she blinks it feels like the wound is being stitched back together by a brutal butcher and minus anesthesia.

"Myka, don't move around so much. Your aura isn't looking so good."

Myka knows that voice. She hasn't heard it in a while in her other life and she's missed the natural soothing quality it carries along with the person it's attached to. Leena. Myka forces her eyes open and turns her head towards the soft voice to her right. Leena always struck Myka as a peaceful and playful soul and here she is still living and breathing like she should be in the real world.

Myka smiles through the pain lancing through her head, "What happened?"

"Claudia and Steve found you collapsed on the floor in the Warehouse about thirty minutes ago." Leena moves towards Myka's nightstand and picks up a dainty teacup that instantly makes Myka think of H.G. "They checked the nearby artifacts but nothing had been disturbed. Vanessa is on her way to examine you anyway."

Myka wants to laugh and why not? Maybe she'll never come back from this wish or wherever she's living this out in her mind or body or whatever. Myka is tempted to play it off that she's fine but right now she feels like she's took a really hard hit physically and emotionally again and all she wants to do is stay down for once.

"I'll be right here."

Myka is pleased to see that her little quip makes Leena smile before she leaves the room. Myka is going to re-invent herself. It's past time. Myka has wallowed in her misery over Sam, Helena enough. And then to cap it off a marginally less than platonic and highly regrettable fling with Pete of all people as an encore. Something has to change and it's frankly way overdue. The real hurtle though is knowing where to go from here and Myka isn't just thinking about when she wakes up from this wish powered universe or whatever she's living in. Myka closes her eyes just to rest them.

* * *

**VIII.**

Myka wakes up again and this time she knows that she's back in her reality. Maybe. But then Myka can tell right away that she's in the hospital again. The smell, the sounds are right off the page of her last stint thanks to the cancer scare. Myka would roll her eyes at all the shit she's had to endure if she were sure it wouldn't hurt like a bitch. The lights in her room aren't very bright and as Myka slightly turns her head to the side she sees around the clearing blur in her vision that the blinds over the windows are closed.

"It's good to see you finally coming around." Myka slowly turns her head towards the kind voice coming from the foot of her bed. Myka smiles as much as she can at the sight of Dr. Vanessa Calder. "You've been trying to wake up for about three days now." Myka watches Vanessa make notes on a chart before closing it and then tucking it underneath her arm. "We all agreed that it was safer to let you do that naturally given the time you were comatose and the artifact you were presumably under the influence of."

Vanessa pulls her stethoscope from around her neck and tucks it into one of the pockets on her white lab coat, "No one was aware that the wishing kettle was capable of doing that since your wish never physically manifested. Though an MRI showed unusual brain activity so we assumed you were living out your wish in your mind."

Myka nods her ascent that Vanessa's observations are correct. Myka has no idea how much time has passed here in the real world but in her private wish world she was there maybe a month at most? Myka had no concept of time after Helena left. The most vivid memory Myka has of her time spent in a manufactured limbo is right after Helena saved everyone and then followed Myka into her bedroom. Now Myka wonders if she would've been better off just kissing Helena and claiming that it was a reaction to the stress if Helena didn't like it. If Helena didn't want her like that.

Myka swallows against her dry throat as much as the old distressing emotions that goes hand in hand with thoughts like that, "H-how long?"

Dr. Calder smiles gently, "Let's start with the hard part. The year. It's 2019, Myka."

Maybe it's the dizzy feeling of shock but Myka tunes out the rest of Vanessa soothing bedside manner to take stock of her body. There's some weakness but to Myka her body feels far less numb than it should. Muscle atrophy is to be expected but Myka easily wiggles her toes underneath the rough weave of the blanket draped over her.

"Myka, do you understand what I've told you?"

Myka's vision blurs again but she nods her head, "Not really."

Dr. Calder offers Myka another smile before moving to sit down in the chair that Myka notices is pulled very close to the side of her bed. Vanessa sits down and crosses one leg over the other and even in her teal scrubs and long white lab coat she looks as elegant as ever.

"I notified Claudia, Artie, Steve and Pete about ten minutes ago."

Myka nods again in no particular way to silently express her acceptance or to decline whatever words Vanessa said or is about to say about what comes next.

"Helena was already on her way here."

The pure air Myka was inhaling through the oxygen nasal cannula mixed with the filtered air in room stalls in her lungs and then stops in her throat. The burning blur in Myka's eyes spill over her eyelashes and not just from suddenly choking but from the sheer insanity that just came out of a doctor's mouth.

"Myka!" Vanessa springs up out of the chair and the clipboard clatters to the floor. Myka waves her off as she tries to get her lungs to work again and much slower. "I'm not well-versed on yours and Helena's relationship but this can't come as a shock to you."

Myka closes her eyes and concentrates on her breathing and not what kind of world she's woken up in. The kettle couldn't have changed anything. Could it? Helena left in the wish world like she did here but the difference is Myka nudged Helena to a place that wasn't Wisconsin. A thought flits through Myka's sharpening mind that maybe the kettle punished her for pushing Helena away before the old rejection set in. Myka's eyes open at Vanessa's slight touch on her shoulder.

"Myka, I can say you're not well enough for visitor's if you're not comfortable with Miss Wells being here?"

Myka shakes her head and licks her lightly cracked lips, "No, it's fine. I just...don't understand?"

Vanessa smiles again, "It may not be my place but you should know that Helena has been sitting by your side, in that chair, for nearly three years waiting for you to wake up."

A little sob slips past Myka's control while she fumbles with the bedcovers before throwing them off with the intention of running to the nearest bathroom to hide whatever physical upheaval is trying to claw its way out of her mouth. Myka's legs give out though as soon as her bare feet press onto the cold floor. The landing doesn't hurt though and Myka just lays there and then yanks the oxygen cannula out of her nose; it's a short life-sustaining leash. Myka hears the faraway sounds of Dr. Calder calling for assistance in picking Myka up off the floor.

* * *

**IX.**

It's just a day over two weeks since Myka's discharge from Vanessa's care but Myka still has her mental health therapy to look forward to. Myka isn't an agent anymore. Not for the Secret Service or the Warehouse. A five-year coma will do that. Myka shudders every time she thinks about the kind of white lies her parents and Tracy have been spoon-fed. The Harriet Tubman thimble for example was used several times by Claudia and Pete to fool Myka's parents. And they bought it and maybe that's fair. Myka never told them about her cancer deal which was stupid.

In retrospect what Myka shouldn't have done is told Pete about it after having a meltdown in front of an immortal woman who wanted to finally be able to die like everyone else. Myka remembers what Charlotte Dupree looked like before she died. But Myka's reality is that she's lost five years off her life because of an artifact she welcomed in to do its worst. Myka knew better but desperation causes a special kind of craving that anyone will do almost anything to make it go away the least painless way possible.

In all honesty though Myka thought she would just end up with another ferret. Thinking of the late furry ferret Pete inevitably causes Myka to recall seeing the human Pete again after her Rip Van Winkle time-out as Pete called it. Pete hasn't changed. He's still a man-child that just got older but thankfully he's remarried. Myka is thirty-seven now where Pete is forty-nine, nearly fifty actually. Pete's crow's feet are even deeper, his hairline has receded more and he's put on more weight. Myka knows that Pete would be more inclined to call it buffing out more or more accurately rocking a dad-bod.

Myka isn't vain but she was afraid for a moment what she would see when she looked at herself in a mirror. To her shock though not much about her has changed. She hasn't spent the last five years smiling, frowning, yelling or just worrying; adding those types of lines to her face. In other words, the kettle was much kinder than that damned camera that nearly killed her off by the on-set of rapid old age. A part of Myka wishes she could be very fucking angry but a strange kind of temporary peace is the ruling majority when Myka is alone.

But Myka isn't alone. Not only did Pete find a woman who can put up with him but Steve and Liam found their way back to each other and are married as well. Claudia is of course the Caretaker now or El Caretaker Deluxe as she calls herself when she 'Mrs. Fredric's you' out of the blue better than the original. Myka is beyond glad that the playful side of Claudia hasn't mellowed in light of all her responsibilities. Myka only remembers Claudia changing drastically just once; when Steve died.

Abigail is still the owner of the B&B but she's off traveling again. Artie is retired from the Warehouse and living with Vanessa. There's so many years of teasing her favorite grouch that she's missed out on. Pete more than likely picked up the slack though. Pete and Steve are partners again and have been since Myka was unavailable. And last but certainly not least there is Helena who is a member of the Regents which is fitting given her experience and how many openings they had after Sykes declared it hunting season. That's such a bad joke but it's one Myka will never say out loud.

The one plus Myka has been able to get behind thus far is that her physical recovery was fast given the artifact didn't render her in need of complete life support and it kept her body from deteriorating. Myka really doesn't see much of a distinction though that and Myka refuses to see herself as a faulty Sleeping Beauty since there was no kiss that woke her up breaking some horrible curse. Back to the subject of the new facts of her life Myka's hears Helena's boots on the hardwood floor of the house that they're sharing. Myka wasn't allowed to go back to the B&B seeing as her room was relocated to the dead agent's vault.

Helena's house is right in Univille or their house really. Myka still isn't sure how she feels about that. Helena didn't ask to assume responsibility for Myka's care when Vanessa said Myka could go, after completing her mandatory PT, it was just an accepted fact that Regent Wells was there to collect Myka and that was that. Myka quietly accepted it for about a week. Brooding in her own unfamiliar bedroom costs nothing. The last few days Myka has spent more waking hours with Helena when she's home which isn't that often so far as Myka can tell.

The sound of Helena's boots drawing closer into the kitchen where Myka is currently waiting for a regular tea kettle to whistle its version of mission accomplished on the stove. Maybe a week ago Myka would've swiftly left the kitchen and went back to her own bedroom to avoid Helena but that urge to guard herself has passed. The shock of knowing Helena came back after all and has been back for three years has mostly worn off. Lately all of Myka's processing is wondering where she's going from here. If she has anything left in her for another do-over.

Also, Myka is big enough to admit that she had all sorts of fantasies about what would happen between her and Helena. Myka was even bold enough to write some of them down disguised as fiction which in Myka's mind that's all it would ever be. But here they are again. Only Myka is living in a nice house with Helena and no other roommates. So Myka simply listens to Helena move further into the kitchen and then there's the sound of one of the chairs at the small table being gingerly pulled out. Helena has been as charming as ever without being flirty which is saying a lot. But Myka hasn't been obliged to make things easy.

"How are you feeling today?"

Helena's voice is as clear and beautiful as ever. Myka opens her mouth to speak but a low rasp is all that comes out. Myka clears her throat and she imagines it still hurts from the lack of using her voice for five years. The tea kettle starts to whistle.

Myka yanks the tea kettle off the stove and sits it aside, "Fuck you, Helena."

Myka promptly turns around to see how her blow landed but Helena doesn't even look the slightest bit disturbed at the low profanity. She's just primly sitting there in her seat with her legs crossed. Myka's empty tea cup, save for the bag of Rooibos waiting to be steeped in boiling water, is sitting in front of her on the table.

Helena presses her lips into a thin line and meets Myka's gaze, "Lovely, well you can bloody well bugger off too! I've said it no less than twice now the last week you've seen fit to grace me with your presence, but it's not as though I just blazed in the very minute you woke. I was there, right there, for over three years watching over you while you slept as though you were living out some trite fairy tale. And for all I know you were since you won't tell a soul about it."

Myka wonders if Helena thought about kissing her awake since she mentioned fairy tales and Myka was just likening herself to that very thing before Helena strolled in. Myka admitted her mistake with handling the wishing kettle but Myka politely refused to tell the Regents about her experience after succumbing to the artifact. Myka cited her reasons as the ordeal being highly personal and that it essentially affected no one but her. That and the downside of the artifact was obvious; Myka slept for five years, lost five whole years of her life.

Helena frowns and runs a hand through her hair, "No one can guess what wish was granted or denied since there was no ferret-form rejection due to an impossible wish. But that doesn't explain why no one could wake you?"

Myka knows this is something the rest of the Regents have mostly closed the book on. But Helena is different and somehow Myka has the feeling that Helena knows the nature of the wish or thinks she does. Myka holds her tongue since she's learned in the last two weeks that silence seems to bait Helena rather effectively. Myka supposes it's because Helena spent years watching her; speaking to her when there would be no replies.

Helena huffs out an angry sigh and stands from her seat, "I'm well within my rights to be as angry as you since no one saw fit to tell me you were in a bloody coma until nearly two years after the fact! Not until I accepted their offer to be a Regent. To help sort out all the messes that were more epic than those I'd managed in my own time no to mention the ones I created after I was freed from bronze!"

Myka has her own theory about what happened with that banged up wishing kettle. It was all in the wording really and it wasn't an impossible wish in her mind. If Myka had wanted to truly change things, then she'd had another ferret on her hands.

"You are good at making messes, H.G. That's true alright." Myka has gone easier on everyone but Helena and she doesn't feel the least bit guilty about it. Not yet. Myka was made aware by Claudia that the only thing that kept everyone on the safer side of sane was that Myka's vitals remained strong and stable even though her response to stimuli was nonexistent. "Cleaning them up though wasn't really your forte if I remember correctly."

Helena narrows her dark brown eyes at Myka, "You're determined to deliver the sharpest barbs that you feel I've earned and I've taken them but that will be the last one."

Myka scoffs because she's not afraid of Helena in the sense that she'll leave when she's had enough. That Helena may tell Myka to pack what few clothes she has left and to go. Myka isn't afraid of anything relating to Helena anymore. Myka has been holding this in until she was good and ready to tell Helena her truth. Myka has time now since she's yet to decide how she's going to pick up the pieces again and start her life over. Myka has already made her mind up not to go back to the Warehouse, to be an agent again when or if the Regents ask if she wants to be reinstated yet again.

Myka bites down on her bottom lip and turns to the tea kettle and picks it up by the handle, "My not entirely accidental wish ended up being just a what if." Myka moves towards the kitchen table and reaches over and pulls the tea cup closer and then tips the kettle to pour the very hot steaming water into the cup. The teabag bobs up some in the water to hug the side of the cup. "You know after Pete and I drove away that night, the last time I would see you, I wished I'd been angry and not so damn passive while trying not to cry in front of you." Myka turns away from the cup and places the tea kettle back on the cold stove burner. "I was a stronger person once. Closed off maybe, but at least that was something better than letting you walk on my heart with impunity."

Myka has practiced the words in her head and she still feels as though she's giving a bland speech. But Myka doesn't want passion creeping into her words. Myka turns to face Helena who is apparently struck silent which was Myka's intention.

Myka leans back against the countertop, "I still don't understand how could you do that? Run off and shack up with some guy and his kid? In your time you wanted more than what life had to offer a woman." Myka shakes her head and glances away from Helena for a moment before being drawn back. "Then fast forward a hundred years and you go from the H.G. Wells to Emily Lake, step soccer mom? What's wrong with you? You walked away from a place, a home, imperfect as it is, but still it was a place that had accepted you exactly as you are and to what? A place where you had to lie about yourself to keep your deluded fabrication? What a prize, Helena."

Helena's expression contorts from outright shock to unmistakable irritation, "How can you say these things! My ruse in Wisconsin couldn't very well revert back to the comfortable lie I had crafted after you left, could they? That part of my life has been over for years! You know that! And I'm here now aren't I?"

Myka shrugs and crosses her arms over her chest, "Big deal."

"Myka!"

The memories of that night is just has fresh as ever for Myka. They have been there since they were made. It's an imprint now and that's not normally what one would consider a sad thought but it is.

Myka bites on her lower lip which is taking a beating and shakes her head, "I believed in romance once, maybe even twice, but I want no part of it anymore. I used to be scared of ending up alone. But being alone isn't the worst thing that can happen to me. The worst thing I can think of is loving someone who will never chose me."

Myka has put forth her best effort not to look at Helena too closely over the last two weeks or really since she walked into that hospital room after Myka was deposited back in her bed. Helena is of course still astonishingly beautiful. She has a few lines around her mouth now that weren't there the last time Myka saw her. There are a few fine crinkles at the corners of Helena's expressive eyes that are always present whether she smiles or even flashes one of her many smirks.

"How could I know you felt that way?"

Myka drops her arms and pushes away from the countertop, "Oh please, Helena! That's such bullshit! I bent and then broke every damn rule I had for you." Myka picks up her cup of tea off the table. "Did I have to come out and say it?" Myka removes the steeped teabag and tosses it into the nearby trashbin. That old anger Myka used to carry after Denver is back. Myka dumps the tea and the cup down in the sink and then whirls around to glare at Helena. "Fine, you know what...I fell in love with you and all I got out of it was passing moments that weren't good for anything but crushing sadness which then gave way to anger because that felt better than being pathetic!"

Helena takes a decisive step forward that puts her right in Myka's personal space, "You are not pathetic! How dare you say that about your feelings!"

Myka takes a deep breath and stands her ground. The old tension is alive and kicking. It's enough to drown in given the way Myka has opened up the floor. Once more Myka reminds herself that there's no other creative ways left for Helena to hurt her. Myka has weathered all the storms Hurricane Helena has dished out so far. Myka won't say that each one didn't leave a mark since they so clearly did.

"I know you don't love me, Helena. At least not the way it was for me." Myka forces herself to not even flinch, blink or waver in any way in the face of those dark brown eyes looking right back at her. "And I know now that you can't because of all the guilt around our history or maybe it's because it's just me."

"Oh, do stop it!" Helena's eyes seem to darken as does her voice as it grows in volume. "You've taken quite a few liberties and spoken at length enough for me Special Agent Bering!"

Myka smirks but not in pride for ruffling Helena yet again, "I'm not an agent anymore and I'm certainly not special. I'm a speck of dust left here by the cosmos to grow, gradually rot and then die, H.G."

Helena's face hardens as her lips thin out in a line again, "So cavalier about death are you? Well, that's another thing I was left in the dark about. I was begrudgingly told about your bought of ovarian cancer only a few months ago. And I prefer that you call me Helena."

The words are practically a low growl. Myka has successfully upset the H.G. Wells. Not so long that would've been as advisable as raiding an active beehive without using smoke first. But Myka feels validated now that most of the scary things she's ever held back in regards to the mother of science fiction is in the open.

"Why did you bring me here?"

"Where else did you have to go?" Helena gestures with both hands before placing her hands on her hips. "The B&B is full and for probationary agents and apprentice's only. Claudia's four new recruits are occupying that space; they're quite the spirited bunch, especially the legacy recruit Brady Miller."

It's true that Myka had nowhere else to go. And to be fair Myka's options were slim in Univille and probably in all of North Dakota really. It's not as though Helena kidnapped her, coerced or ordered Myka to move in temporarily. It was either accept Helena's friendly offer or go be a third wheel at Steve and Liam's which was as much of a no-go as going to Pete and Kate's house.

Myka shakes her head, "You're a coward, Helena. Just fucking say it already, say it! If it's not our past, then just say it." Myka is ready to hear Helena admit that she's not attracted to her. Myka's not yelling, not yet, but it's close. She's using the same volume she'd use when arguing with Pete after he'd gotten on her last nerve. "Tell the truth and shame the devil just this one time."

Being this close to Helena is almost inviting a good slap to the face or worse. But this isn't some kind of bad soap opera and Myka's not doing this because she's been missing drama in her life. If anything Myka's life has been nothing but angst and high drama the last couple of years. And before that is a whole different story with another set of emotional scars that Myka just barely conquered before losing her footing and then her way again.

Helena sighs, "Very well then...letting you go that night in Boone was the most cowardly thing I've done in my entire existence thus far." Myka takes a small step back from Helena but Helena just moves with her. "You were and have been right about me at every turn. In my time I lived without fear but then life taught me to fear the unknown, things beyond my control. I gave into fear by being reckless until I surrendered myself to the bronzer. Then waking up to a new world...needless to say you are aware of the outcome of my story but it has not yet ended."

Myka glances away from Helena to look around the small but spotless unassuming kitchen. Pete called H.G.'s home in London a dump; a historic building no less. Myka thought it was far from a dump. It certainly had a very high ceiling while the rest of it was elegant and functional. A very nice home built for its time but it was also a place Myka wouldn't hesitate to live if it were an option. Myka likes Helena's house here too for those same reasons though this house is smaller but it still suits its owner's needs. Myka suddenly feels Helena's cool palm gently pressing against her cheek.

Helena's smile is hesitant but yet it still holds a good deal of her confidence, "I haven't a clue how many days I have on this Earth. I'm not immortal. I am a flawed human being who is broken, prone to dismantling objects but eventually remaking them anew. And I've decided to apply that concept to my life." Myka thinks that no one will ever be as eloquent as Helena with words. How she voices them. "Our history is fraught with hazard, dismay, angst and fear but I should like to start over with you. And let me begin by saying that you are wrong about one thing."

Helena pauses and it's in those dark eyes that Myka loses herself yet again, "I fell in love with you as well and at no time did I ever stop." Myka's breathing wavers from finally hearing the words she didn't think would ever slip from Helena's lips. "These intense feelings happened unexpectedly and who is to say what it's a byproduct of. All that matters is that you should know in your bones by now that I love you dearly and I should like to spend what remains of my natural life with you."

Helena is as articulate as ever. Myka expects as much from a brilliant writer. Helena's mind is just as attractive as the rest of her. Even the dark parts. Myka loves Helena's flaws too and it's that unconditional love that has slowly eaten Myka alive over the years.

"You have a funny way of showing your affection." Myka tilts her face away from Helena's touch and takes a small step away. It's going to take some breathing space to get the rest out. "First you stalk me all in the name of using me to get into the Warehouse again. And after all the fallout, Sykes, the Astrolabe you couldn't get away from me fast enough." Helena's beautiful confession of love is still ringing in Myka's ears but it hasn't made this any easier. "I didn't want to fall in love with you but I did. I still am and I can't begin to tell you how angry and sad that makes me. I refuse to be the victim though. Falling into a coma and losing five years of my life on top of the additional year and half beforehand is enough."

Helena's face hardens again but Myka won't take her words back. Too many things have been left unsaid between them. Myka knew that before the kettle gave her a taste of something different.

"I was informed that you were with Pete before the wishing kettle sought you out."

Myka frowns, "Very, very briefly. And I'm the one who ended it."

"Then why go down that path at all since I for one believe that Pete wasn't at all suited for you on a romantic level?"

Myka could recount the rather incestuous feeling act Pete was determined to commit but Myka is going to refrain for both of their benefits. That and it's been five years since Myka made her bad decision. No point in dwelling on it any longer than needed.

Myka scoffs out a weird little chuckle, "I went there because so much shit kept happening. That and I guess I had an Emily Lake moment."

Helena frowns and crosses her arms over her chest, "I beg your pardon?"

Myka shrugs, "I let myself be someone I wasn't for just long enough to get into that kind of situation with Pete. I also let other people tell me what I wanted for just long enough. Looking back, I kinda feel like I was following orders."

Helena's dark eyes slip down and away before tracking back up, "I suddenly feel rather ill."

"You and me both."

In this moment it's almost funny for Myka to abruptly be thinking about her first day at Warehouse Thirteen when the kettle landed in Pete's hands. Myka wonders now what it was in Pete then that the kettle was drawn to? In Myka's years among the shelves of artifacts most of them look like something you would pick out at flea market, than something that most likely will kill you in ways you haven't thought of before. Myka had her time among endless wonder and it's over too.

"I haven't been asked or anything yet, which you probably already know, but I've decided that I'm not going to be a Warehouse agent again."

Helena's relaxes her tense posture and closes the scant distance Myka put between them, "But I thought you loved the Warehouse?"

"I do but not in the same way as I once did." Myka reflects back on her conversation with the H.G. from the wish world and their talk about Rebecca St. Claire and the advice Rebecca gave Myka that feels like another lifetime ago. "And that's not the secret downside of the kettle talking in case you're wondering."

"Then what's prompted it other than the obvious remaining strain from your encounter with the kettle?"

Myka sighs and reaches up to twist her hair but draws her hand back down, "Before I made my huge mistake with Pete I think the Warehouse tampered with my feelings when I was recording my defining moment."

Myka abruptly recalls another portion of her argument with Pete in the library five years ago before she went on personal leave. Before she came back and the kettle found her again.

"You treated Helena like she was expendable, Pete! All of us should've helped her long before Yellowstone happened! Now that I've thought about it I can safely say that no one comes out of being bronzed for over a hundred years without it changing them! We fucked up!"

"She could've asked for help, Mykes!"

"You honestly see the H.G. Wells asking for therapy? A Victorian-era woman awake in the 21st century? Helena needed real help before she asked to be bronzed, never mind leaving her in the dark for as long as she was!"

Myka knows what it's like to lose time but being lost in a wish is not the same as being bronzed and awake the whole time, "I didn't want Steve, Mrs. Frederic, Artie, Pete and Claudia to see our moments, yours and mine Helena. They're all I had of you and they were mine alone."

Helena reaches for Myka's hands and Myka allows the contact, "I've been in this world, rather in this time for just over nine years now. I'll be forty-two in a manner of months but realistically I will be one hundred and fifty-three. My, how it rolls off the tongue." Helena's accompanying smirk is rather wry and Myka is helplessly charmed by it as ever. "I cannot afford to waste any more time. Time has become extremely precious to me as you have always been."

Myka inhales sharply and for a second she can't decide whether to pull her hands out of Helena's grasp or pull Helena in closer. Myka still has one last box to tick off before she can really forgive Helena yet again and start digesting all the words Helena has spouted about a mutual love.

Helena sighs, "Have I not been punished enough by others and myself? Do you feel as though you have some of your own to dole out in regards to my callus actions?" Helena's dark eyes are shiny and Myka has only seen Helena cry once. Oddly it was just before Helena betrayed her for the first time. "Do you have any idea how many times your face more than likely appeared on that infernal Janus coin when it was removing my consciousness from my body? I imagine it was second only to how many times I've thought of Christina."

At the tender mention of her daughter Myka decides right then to give Helena the last piece. Helena can even tell the other Regents if she wants to. Myka doesn't care who knows that her greatest weakness will always be Helena.

Myka licks her lips, "In my wish you saved us all from the bomb again and you lived. Instead of using the doti or what happened in the other timeline where you died." Myka cannot imagine being able to just stand behind some magical blue shield to watch Helena be vaporized. "In my wish instead of you putting the energy from the Remati Shackle around me, Artie and Pete we put the bomb on the same spot on the floor. And then we watched the contained explosion happen in that small blue dome."

Helena's deep brown eyes widen, "That would've worked. Why didn't I think of that in the other timeline? I should've. It seems so obvious now."

Myka can't help but smile at how Helena's mind works and it reminds Myka of Helena's joking about the poke ball holding her consciousness that time at her father's bookstore, "I suggested it. Since I knew what was going to happen and I wasn't caught up in arguing with Artie and Pete while trying to rationalize Pete's silliness with a blowtorch."

Helena gently squeezes Myka's hands in her grasp, "You wanted to save me, was that your wish?"

"In a sense I think so." Myka's eyes burn and then blur slightly with tears. "It's all I've ever wanted next to wanting just some of your time."

Helena steps in closer and her eyes flick down to Myka's lips, "As I said time is precious and inclined to be fleeting by nature." Helena's lips turn up into a small smile. "So tell me did we live happily ever after then, darling?"

Myka smiles sadly, "No, I-I mean that's what the other you wanted. Maybe? And I was ready to give in but I just thought it was wrong. I kept thinking about how we were never forthcoming enough with each other. Things left unsaid. So I told you about Eureka, how you could go there and possibly change the worst thing that happened in your past. And you left. Then I pretty much lingered off and on waiting to see if you would come back, like always, but you didn't. And then I woke up in the hospital and here we are."

Myka isn't an expert on time travel but if Helena were to do such a thing it might create a paradox? The whole concept is enough to make a person's head hurt or drive them insane. Helena's time machine didn't even give her closure it just made it worse on so many levels. Helena got to witness her daughter's death through the eyes of another.

Helena smiles sadly, "That's a truly selfless and thoughtful gesture on your part. But I would never do that. Not even after learning of Paracelsus and how he effectively altered and successfully used my time machine to change the course of his life." A single tear quickly escapes from Helena's deep brown eyes and sticks in her long lashes. "I've finally made peace with my daughter's death. And these days my thoughts of her, or rather my hopes really, is that she's in a better place."

Myka takes a deep breath and then without an ounce of hesitation she gently lets go of Helena's hands to draw her into a hug. Myka has wanted to do that as often as she's wanted to kiss Helena. Not more than a few heartbeats later Helena makes a small noise of contentment as she winds her arms around Myka while pressing her body firmly against Myka's. So Myka tightens her hold and with their marginal height difference it feels perfect if there is such a thing.

* * *

**X.**

The night air is crisp and there is a very fine drizzle that's revealed as a misty glow in the streetlights. Myka runs her fingers lightly along the handrail that was installed later into the steps she's walking up. Last night in her hotel room Myka listened to the muted sound of the steady rain on the roof before drifting off to sleep. It was strange sleeping alone but not odd. Myka catches herself smiling at where she is at just after ten o'clock on a Thursday night. Despite the seemingly nefarious intent of current events the last ten months have been building from one good day into another. The year 2020 has been better than good to Myka.

"I never thought I would ever be back here." Myka breathes out with a growing smile as she steps up beside her cohort for this evening. "But with you this time instead of trying to catch you."

Myka takes a moment to marvel at how Helena's dark hair shines from the overhead light that was also installed onto the premises long after the house was built.

"Really?" Helena turns her head to the side and smirks as she uses one of the Warehouse's tools to bypass the alarm. "I remember that day quite vividly. Pete behaved like a buffoon whilst his partner, despite the matching gloomy trench coat, looked utterly fetching in her button-down shirt." Upon deactivation of the alarm Helena unplugs the device and tucks it away in her coat pocket and then produces what looks like a homemade lock-picking apparatus. "I felt compelled to speak to you when I saw you at the sign-in ledger." The lock clicks over. "Ha!" Helena tucks her device away and then opens the door. "Especially knowing who you were as soon as I laid eyes on you."

"A game was afoot, huh?" Myka tries to repress her smile and fails. In response Helena only flashes her a very smug smirk and steps aside to open the second set of glass doors; holding one of the door's open. Myka shakes her head and moves past Helena into the house. "You do understand that I'm with Interpol now? That I shouldn't be doing a little breaking and entering with you."

"But this is my home." Helena produces a small flashlight out of another pocket in her long coat and clicks it on. "How can I break into my own home?" Helena deftly shuts both sets of doors closed behind her. "You'll have to explain that one to me, darling."

Myka activates the flashlight feature on her cell phone, "Do you have the key or even a code to the alarm?"

"No."

"Then there you go."

Myka turns and walks down the hallway past a new ledger that doesn't hold the signature of a Edward Prendick written in the real H.G. Wells' own hand. Myka still wonders what people would say or even think if they knew the whole truth.

Helena scoffs and follows behind Myka, "That proves nothing."

Myka barely manages to keep from laughing at Helena's somewhat mocking tone. They bicker rather effectively these days which Myka enjoys as much as everything else they share. Though Helena does take great delights in being coy and vague like when she quickly sold this idea to Myka not two hours ago when she surprised Myka at her hotel. Myka was expecting a seduction that lead towards more horizontal activities without clothes but that did not happen, yet. Myka suspects what they're doing now is like their original incarnation of foreplay. Myka's under no delusions anymore that's what they were more or less doing back then. They managed to flirt over a tracking device after all.

"So how is the money laundering case coming along?"

Myka turns the corner and comes to a stop which Helena instantly mirrors, "Are we doing shop talk, now? Here?"

Helena points her small but bright flashlight towards the floor which makes it seem as though they're standing on portal made of light, "What's wrong with that? Speaking with you is but one of the many reasons I asked you to accompany me here tonight."

Myka's lips quirk up in a lop-sided smirk, "So there's more than one reason?"

A week ago Myka was summoned to London to investigate a lead on a suspect in an on-going case involving money laundering. Myka's time as a member of the Secret Service was a very attractive note on her resume. So attractive that Interpol was more than happy to extend a job offer and because of Myka's experience she has been invited to consult on a wide variety of cases.

"Of course there is but to begin with you were already here." Helena smiles coyly but then it just turns completely sultry. "And yet another reason is that I've missed you terribly this past week. Sleeping alone has been an absolute abomination and rather lonely."

Myka grins and then turns away. Myka tries to control her blush as she walks the short distance down the hallway but it has become even more difficult than before her and Helena were together. Myka strongly believes that Helena has taken it upon herself to charm her more than ever. Myka's light from her phone breaks the darkness first as they step into Helena's office.

Myka stops and shines her cell phone's version of a flashlight up to the spot on the ceiling where her and Pete were stuck to almost ten years ago now, "Missed me that badly, huh?"

A small laugh erupts from Helena, "Thinking of our first meeting again, darling? I know that I will always recall it quite fondly."

Myka rolls her eyes, "You could say that you started sweeping me off my feet from the get-go. But God, I wanted to strangle you with that damn vest after being stuck to that ceiling."

Helena laughs again and it inspires a short and low laugh from Myka in return. Myka has the insane urge to kiss Helena senseless. Myka really loves kissing Helena as often as possible without being annoying about it. Myka reasons that it's due to making up for lost time as well as the high degree of attraction she feels towards a certain science fiction writer. Helena has never even hinted at having the faintest objection. Not to mention Helena initiates and esculates things about as much if not more than Myka does.

"You did strangle me if you recall, in California, but tell me how exactly did you get down? You've never mentioned it before." Helena has that wry smirk of hers on in full force again. "I trust you weren't up there on my ceiling with the spiders all day?"

Myka smiles and then cranes her neck to the side until it cracks, "We were up there maybe ten minutes? Pete zapped one of the lighting fixtures with the Tesla which disrupted the current to the Cavorite. It was a very hard fall."

Myka's smile slips a bit; 'it was a hard fall' is one hell of a metaphor for just how hard Myka fell in love with Helena. It's been one hell of a journey too that was nothing at all like being with someone who was unavailable like Sam technically was. He was separated when they started seeing each other but that's not the same as being well and truly divorced. Myka has thought for some time now that had Sam lived their relationship would've been no more than a rebound for him.

"Ouch." Helena's nose scrunches up in a way that Myka finds adorable. "And though it's nearly a decade belated, I sincerely apologize for that." Helena smiles briefly and then moves in closer to Myka. "And even though circumstances being what they were at the time I had no intention of hurting you, could never hurt you, but I did. Too many times as it were."

Myka turns and grabs Helena by the waist and then pulls her in. Myka has no interest in the past anymore. The past is over. The future doesn't even exist. There is only now. Myka presses her lips against Helena's pliant ones and like always the connection is solid and instantaneous. Kissing Helena is like the first time every time. The jolt to Myka's system is the same and the rapid gathering wetness between her legs would embarrass her were it inspired by someone other than Helena.

Myka breaks the kiss and as a short moan slips past Helena's parted lips, "Apology accepted. And I've already forgiven you."

Helena reaches up and traces a finger along Myka's bottom lip, "You are nearly too good to be real."

"Don't you mean true?" Myka shivers as Helena's touch moves higher to trace along her cheek only to tuck some of Myka's curls behind her ear. "To good to be true?"

Helena shakes her head, "I didn't misspeak the phrase. I amended it to fit you."

Myka has to kiss Helena again for that. Helena will continue to be Regent Wells for some time but life is not in a small but nice two-bedroom house in South Dakota anymore. They now share a house in D.C. where Myka's new job is. Helena wanted to come with Myka since being a Regent can be done from anywhere not just where the Warehouse is located. They now live in Georgetown to be more precise. Myka knew that Helena would love the cobblestone sidewalks, the tree-lined neighborhoods and the overall historic draw of the place. The culture it offers.

Helena is the one to break the kiss this time, "If I didn't know any better one would think you're trying to seduce me, darling."

Myka chuckles and leans in and quickly pecks Helena on the lips, "Maybe I am? But at any rate let's get whatever you've got squirreled away and go. The bed in my hotel room is very nice this time of night. For sleeping."

Myka watches Helena grin and shakes her head at Myka's brand of humor. The flirting. And the reason they're here is that according to Helena there was one more thing she had stashed away in her house that was only accessible in her office library. Helena even went so far as to tell Myka that the item was in the special room Helena had the Imperceptor Vest hidden in.

"Or we could stay here tonight?" Helena runs a finger down the front of Myka's white button up that's peeking out from her overcoat. "My old bedroom is quite functional."

"No."

Helena pouts, "Why not?"

"We are so not having sex...here."

Helena pouts a fraction more but then visibly relents, "Very well then. Help me with the shutters?"

Myka moves out of their shared embrace, "Don't tell me that we have to open them simultaneously?"

"Excellent memory and you are nearly correct. It's not the same set but the next set of shutters." Helena smiles and transfers her flashlight to her left hand. "This is not quite Wells & Bering solving puzzles and saving the day but then that time has come and gone." Helena moves to the wooden shutters and then gestures for Myka to do the same with the adjacent ones. "Are you quite sure you don't wish to come back? The Warehouse has never had an Interpol Agent who is also a former member of the Secret Service?"

Myka isn't going to correct Helena's saucy-sounding delivery on their little shipping name as Claudia labeled it and let's face any portmanteaus would be stupid. MyHel? Helka? Myka has no idea who dreamed up mashing two peoples name together. But using the last part of Helena's name leaves 'Lena' who was the first person Helena saw in a hundred years after being debronzed.

"Speaking of Agents, I could easily see you as an MI-6 operative." Myka looks to Helena and then opts to lower her voice for flare. "Wells, Helena Wells."

Helena rolls her eyes, "I do hope you're not actually comparing me to that sexist, misogynistic fictional character, darling?"

Myka shakes her head no and then shrugs, "You know that I still more or less freelance for the Warehouse. Anytime I come across something suspect don't I forward it along before it pings?"

Helena grips the wooden rod that's affixed to the shutters between two of her long elegant fingers, "Indeed you have and on the count of three, please."

Myka knows that Helena isn't really pushing for her to be an Agent again or for them to go back to South Dakota to live. Helena is being Helena; making doubly certain that Myka isn't walking away from her truth.

"I don't miss being whammied, Helena." Myka's words come out a touch harsher than she meant. After the kettle enough was enough even though it did its job inside the wish and outside in the real world too to a degree. Myka grips the small wooden rod. "And there's so many to choose from but I was affected by a plain-looking glass jar recovered from the Donner Party." Myka shivers at the memory replaying over in her mind. "I'd never been so cold and hungry in my life. They resorted to cannibalism you know." Myka's slender fingers curl tighter around the small wooden rod while she looks to Helena and then nods. "One, two, three."

The shutters turn at the same time and Myka glances around the room to see the effect of the trigger but most of Helena's office is very much in the dark. Helena's flashlight doesn't sweep anywhere but towards Myka's feet as Helena moves closer towards her again.

"I'm not familiar with that piece of American history."

Myka turns to face Helena and the combined light from Myka's phone and Helena's flashlight creates an impressive light in the dark, "It happened before you were born." The concept of history prior to Helena's arrival in the world seems novel to Myka now. After meeting Helena the volume got turned down on a great many things for Myka and that is precisely when Myka knew her feelings had shifted into something other than being awed and then disappointed by someone she admired. "They were a group of American pioneers headed for California and due to mistakes or plain old misfortune they became snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountains during the winter of 1846-1847. "

Myka can't help but notice that in the dark mixed with light Helena is nothing short of smoldering, "Any other terrifying artifacts that sunk their deathly hooks in you, darling?"

"Oh, since you mention it, being trapped in Lewis Carroll's mirror while Alice Liddell was running around in my body comes to mind." Myka thinks there's another thing her and Helena have in common; strangers taking over their body thanks to an artifact. "And then there was this camera that aged me from twenty-eight to ninety in less than ten seconds."

"Ah yes, that blasted mirror." Helena's voice is grim but then she smiles. "And I read about that latter assignment involving the Man Ray camera at length quite recently when I was updating your service file for the archives." Helena's smile never dims and Myka knows what thoughts are running through Helena's brilliant mind. "Had I known that's what you were up to when you traveled to New York I would've followed you on that case instead of the one in California. But I chose to follow you to that college instead when I learned that Pete would not be accompanying you."

Myka feels her face warm, "So you've seen...the...pictures and...stuff?"

Helena flashes that devil-may-care smile of hers while those dark eyes flick down and then slowly draws back up the length of Myka's body, "The photograph of you in that purple dress is nothing short of breath-stealing, darling. You made a very convincing runway model. And I know due to the dress's cut you weren't wearing a stitch of underthings beneath such a flattering and tastefully revealing garment. It suited you. Recently I've found myself wishing you had it in your possession. So you could model it for me privately of course. It would only be fair since everyone else had their turn to bask in such a glorious vision. It's a terrible injustice as far as I'm concerned."

Myka laughs while her cheeks grow even warmer, "I would, you know, model it for you, if I had it. And since you brought it up what were you doing before you arrived in California?"

"Research and some minor plotting." Helena's smile changes from devilish to something less though not fake. "But mostly research. I had a good deal of catching up to do that wasn't strictly in relation with the world I'd awoken to."

Myka grins because she can now even they're talking about that dark part of their history, "About?"

"You of course." Helena smirks and then turns her flashlight towards the wall where the Imperceptor Vest was hidden. Myka sees that the familiar passageway is open again. "Care to see what's behind the door, again?"

Myka regards Helena in a careful but playful way before bringing up her cell phone to light the way. It's now apparent to Myka that the key from the bottom of Helena's desk drawer was how Helena made sure her Cavorite safeguard was activated. For just a second Myka wonders if it would be possible to get the Cavorite working again so Helena could inspect her high ceiling but then Myka recalls that without Helena's magnetic boots she'd be right back up there too. Myka laughs to herself as she steps inside the small room.

Myka notes that the bare female form sewing mannequin where the Imperceptor Vest hung on is still there along with a small pedestal table that is free from dust and has a small box sitting squarely in the middle. A ring box in plain sight; on obvious display. Myka's breath catches because she never saw this coming. Not in a million years. Myka automatically smiles brightly as she feels Helena's arms wind around her waist from behind. Helena's flashlight is shining down at Myka's feet again.

"I take it that my intentions are rather obvious now?"

Myka swallows against her quickening heartbeat, "Yes."

Helena rests her chin on top of Myka's shoulder, "Are you already accepting even though I haven't posed the question yet?"

Myka has thought about marriage but at the same time she never saw herself actually being in this situation per se. No one has ever proposed to Myka or was going to. Not once until now. And it's the one person Myka loves unconditionally but such a grand and at a glance an improbable love that didn't come easily or without tears or years-long heartache. Myka feels like they could have skipped over all the bad some days but in the end there's no denying that it was worth it.

Myka swallows again and places her free hand over Helena's that are resting against her flipping stomach, "Maybe?"

Helena chuckles but it has a hint of nervousness about it which makes Myka smile more as she feels Helena nuzzle into her hair and that much closer to her neck, "It was this or construct another Grappler and propose to you whilst sweeping you off your feet again."

Myka laughs and turns around in Helena's grasp to kiss her again. The answer is always going to be 'yes' regardless of how Helena poses the question. As Myka's lips slide over Helena's she idly thinks that just over three months ago, prior to their move to D.C., Myka redid her defining moment at the round table which was her last act as a former agent of Warehouse 13. The defining moment Myka was coerced into imprinting into the round table the first time wasn't the legacy Myka wanted to leave behind.

Myka swallows the little noises Helena is making but before things can get too carried away Myka slowly pulls back from their kiss with one last small nip to Helena's bottom lip, "Ask me."

Helena's smirk is as cocky as Myka has ever seen it but she is no less than charmed by it like everything else about Helena. So as it stands now there are three events recorded in the round table that truly defined Myka's time as an agent. One was reconciling with her father, and another was overcoming some of her insecurities, self-doubts while the biggest one was saving the world from the sweating sickness. And then because Myka felt safe to do so she offered a small glimpse of the most complex event that ever happened to her during her time at Warehouse 13 and that was meeting the H.G. Wells at gunpoint.

**-==|END|==-**

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**Soundtrack: "Wrong" by Depeche Mode, "Black and Gold" by Sam Sparro, "Not The One" by Mikky Ekko, "Love It If We Made It" by the 1975 & "Superposition" by Young the Giant**

**Final Words: Kind words, thoughts or neutral observations are welcome but if you hated this then I don't need to hear about it. Though if you do hate this then you're clearly a Pyka fan and shouldn't be reading this to begin with.**


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